love's illusions
by ThePaperBagPrincess
Summary: Love comes in many shapes and forms. From a single kiss to a one night stand to a happy-ever-after; from a teenage crush to a forbidden affair to a classic love story.  Drabble collection.Trio Gen pairings.Canon-compliant.Includes obscure pairings.
1. one kiss only

**_"I've looked at love from both sides now, _**

**_from give and take, _****_and still somehow,_**

**_it's love's illusions I recall,_**

**_I really don't know love at all."_**

**~A pairing can mean so many different things. From friendship-only to a one-night-stand to a happy-ever-after - we can ship our couples any way we want.~**

**~This is a drabble collection (well, they're sort of drabbles, even if they are a bit long), each one based around a different type of pairing, and taking a different couple for each. Of course, there are some that will overlap with each other - 'forbidden love' could also be 'happy-ever-after,' but it could equally well be 'one night stand,' depending on how I write it. However, each chapter will take one pairing-type as its main theme and inspiration.~**

**~The characters are all of Harry's generation. Some are canon couples, but most are not; all are canon compliant though. Most are strange or obscure pairings. None of the characters belong to me.~**

******~Enjoy!~**

* * *

><p><strong>~Number One~<strong>

**~"one kiss only"~**

**~luna/colin~**

Her first kiss was not a sweet, romantic moment. It was brief, hurried; a snatched moment in the eye of the storm, and it took her entirely by surprise. The atmosphere was charged and tense; everyone was on edge, adrenaline in the air, and afterwards she supposed that that was probably why he did it.

She had known him vaguely; he was one of the few in her year who had never called her Loony Lovegood, but more than that, he had been one of the original members of Dumbledore's Army. He had not come back at the beginning of Sixth Year though, because he was Muggle-born. When they had kept morale up by whispering the names of their missing friends, the people they fought for, his name had always been there.

But she didn't think he'd liked her like that, so the kiss, while the battle raged around them, was unexpected, although surprisingly pleasant. And it was probably just a momentary impulse; a desire to be close to someone for a few short seconds. Despite that, Luna holds it in her heart; one of her treasured memories, along with the ones of her mother, and the day Harry first called her his friend on the Hogwarts Express, and the time she met Rolf.

Because he was certainly the first boy ever even to want to kiss her, and maybe, just maybe, he really liked her, and maybe that kiss, for him, was as brave a thing as anyone did on that day of heroism.

She will never know, because when the flames had died down and an eerie silence had settled with the ashes over Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Colin Creevey was dead, and so the secret is Luna's alone.


	2. friends with benefits

**~"friends with benefits"~**

**~romilda/seamus~**

She knows that she is not a good person. She is not the heroine, she is not selfless, she is not noble. She is not the sort of girl you would find standing beside the Chosen One to fight the dark forces with him, and so, looking back, she cannot imagine why she ever thought that she might be the right girl for Harry Potter.

But she was young and stupid, oh so stupid, and she allowed herself to dream, and worse than that, she allowed the dream to take hold. It started as a celebrity crush, but it did not end as one, and a broken dream is a broken dream, whether you are a noble heroine or a foolish little girl (and really, where is the line between them?).

Romilda has no illusions left any more, and neither does he, which is why it works. He is a womaniser and she is a slut (oh yes, she knows what they say behind her back) so really, they are perfect for each other, aren't they? There are no stupid feelings to complicate things; it's sex, pure and simple, and it doesn't hurt that she finds his Irish accent whispering in her ear hot as hell.

One day, he will move on, she knows this and doesn't let it bother her. He will find a nice, sweet girl who can not only get him but keep him; everyone finds somebody in the end. Except her. Romilda Vane is not a keeper, but that's okay, because there will always be a different man prepared to spend the nights with her and keep the loneliness at bay.


	3. true love

**"true love"**

**~neville/hannah~**

There is blood. Quite a lot of blood, and a strange ringing in his ears, and a feeling as though his head is floating away from his body, which is strange because although he has injuries all over him, he is fairly sure that nobody severed his neck. He isn't sure he's going to make it back to the Gryffindor Common Room though, and that's not a good thing, because if he collapses here, the chances are that the person who finds him will not be friendly.

"Neville!" a voice says. A horrified, anxious voice, and he looks round and focuses on a blonde, blue-eyed girl. A girl he knows perfectly well, although he cannot currently place her name. He knows he is forgetful, but he is not usually _this_ forgetful; he knows her name, but he thinks that his inability to remember it might have something to do with the way the world is spinning all around him. He fixes his eyes on hers because they are big and really very blue. His stomach is doing something strange, which might also be to do with the whole world-spinning thing, although he also thinks that it is something that happens quite often when he sees those particular blue eyes.

"Your eyes are beautiful, y'know…" he mutters in a slurred voice, before sliding to the ground at her feet.

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><p>Later, he wakes up in the hospital wing. A tight-lipped, stormy-eyed Madam Pomfrey is bustling around his bed, and the blue eyed girl is sitting beside him, and smiles when she sees that he is conscious.<p>

"Hello," she says softly, "How are you feeling?"

He thinks about this. He feels as if he has been put through a mangle, but he thinks he will be okay.

"I'll be fine," he says, and his stomach is doing that weird thing again.

"Good," she says, then bites her lip and hesitates before going on, "Neville… when you said… I mean… do you really think my eyes are beautiful?"

He opens his mouth but does not speak for a moment, mortification flooding him as he remembers the unguarded words he spoke.

"Yes," he says at last, his voice small, because there does not seem to be any other answer, although he fully expects some form of rejection (although kind, because she is always kind). She smiles, looking almost as nervous as he feels. Then she leans forward and briefly, just for a moment, her lips brush his, and then she pulls back, pink staining her cheeks.

"Um… well, thanks," she says confusedly, and Neville stares at her. He no longer feels weak, bruised or exhausted; he feels _great_. And he considers for the first time that he may have fallen in love with Hannah Abbott.


	4. unlikely pairing number one

**"unlikely pairing number one"**

**justin/marietta**

Four years and the scars have faded so that a normal amount of foundation will hide them completely. The smart of it still rankles though, and so does the guilt. Hideous, wrenching, wracking guilt, even now, and although the humiliation still stings, she knows that she deserved it.

She betrayed them. Betrayed the people who were fighting their best fight against the dark arts, and for that, she feels that she belongs with those who have gone down as the villains of the war.

When she meets him, she wants to turn and run the other way, for she remembers him. Justin Finch-Fletchley. A Hufflepuff from the year below her. He was one of them. One of those whom she betrayed. She cannot run though; she is at work, and they are assigned to work together, and he makes no sign that he has recognised her, so she pulls herself together, and pretends to feel nothing.

* * *

><p>He was pretending too, she discovers that much later, in the darkness, when she whispers her confession in the post-sex closeness.<p>

"I know," he murmurs back, his hand rubbing gentle circles on her arm. She pulls back.

"Then… why…?"

"It was a long time ago," he explains, "I don't blame you. You were scared; we were all scared. It doesn't matter any more."

"Yes, we were all scared… but I was the only one who betrayed you…" she replies, her voice barely audible, the pain and guilt that she has hidden so long finally spilling out, "I deserve to be in Azkaban with the Death Eaters…"

He holds her while she cries though, and when her tears are finally spent, he is still there. Nothing has really changed, but for the first time, she feels that maybe it is possible to move on, and somehow find forgiveness.


	5. summer romance

**"summer romance"**

**~susan/roger~**

There are bad times ahead. Hell, there are bad times _now. _Her family are among the first victims, more loss, more grief, and it won't end here. But the summer is like a bubble. Like a pause before a plunge; like a deep breath before a leap. In September, she will join the fight and face the darkness, but there is a month before that time. A month in which the days drift by and she can pretend that there are happy endings.

He nods seriously when she brushes up against serious topics, but she knows that he does not really understand how bad it is going to get. He has never lost family members; he is an optimist who likes to laugh, and that's what she loves about him, but sometimes her heart aches for his innocence (because even though he's older than her, he's oh-so-innocent), and how vulnerable it makes him.

He takes the fear away though, and when she is with him, she can laugh again. They go on long rambling walks through the countryside near his home, in beautiful places where the threat of Voldemort seems far away, and he kisses her under the full-leafed oak trees, and they lie in sunny fields, legs tangled together, her hands running through his brown curls, and she almost believes that things can still be all right again.


	6. one night stand

**"One Night Stand"**

**~Lavender/Michael~**

Contrary to what a lot of people think, Lavender Brown is not the type to have one night stands. She is a little confused as to why this seems to surprise people; do they take her for a slut? Does she _act_ like a slut? It worries her, because what people think matters to Lavender. In truth, she is a romantic and always has been. She likes love and happy endings and believes in Destiny and soul mates.

She is still waiting for her soul mate. When she was sixteen, she thought it was Ron Weasley, but she knows now how ridiculous _that_ was. She's tried plenty of men out (and perhaps it's the fact that she's always got a different date that makes people think she would sleep around), but she's always been disappointed. She holds onto the belief, though, that somewhere out there, her Mr Right is waiting. Perhaps he too is taking girls on dates, and finding each one wanting. One day, one day, they will find each other, and Lavender is prepared to wait, although she does sometimes wonder how long Destiny is going to take with this.

Which is perhaps why she went and had one (or four) too many vodka and lemonades in the bar that night with Michael Corner, and woke up next morning in his bed, the headache and the mortification setting in.

Embarrassment is the last thing on her mind though, as she sits curled in the basket chair in her flat, arm laid protectively over her abdomen, battling the crippling panic that is overcoming her. She doesn't _feel_ any different, and she always thought you would. But the test is there, and in no doubt; her one night stand – the only one she has ever had – has had the worst consequence.

She is pregnant. She is alone. All her romantic dreams are coming crumbling down, and Destiny, after all the trust she put in it, seems to have cast her off and be laughing at her.


End file.
